… UGA’s Mark Richt is certain to have the most liberal transfer policy in college football. In his 11 years as coach of the Bulldogs, Richt has never put any stipulation when granting a player release.

That means his former players could’ve gone to rivals Georgia Tech, Auburn, Florida, wherever. Some have come back and played against the Bulldogs, including Philadelphia Eagles LB Jamar Chaney (Mississippi State) and Michael Grant (Arkansas).

It’s not even been hands off. In many cases, like Chaney’s, Richt actually stepped in to help the kid with the transfer. Why so, in this age of controlling jerks? Because the man is an adult about it.

“I think if a kid doesn’t want to be in your program, then I really don’t want him in the program. If he wants to go somewhere else where he thinks is in his best interests and his family thinks is in his best interests, I’m fine with that.

“I’m not going to say that there will never be a situation where I wouldn’t want to put some type of condition on a release. But in the last 11 years I haven’t found one yet where I felt I should.”

I’ll say it again – Mark Richt is the kind of guy who makes it really hard to root against him.

Also, I’m not putting tampering past Jimmy. If anything, the quote from O’Brien in the Vandy media guide is a little beyond the pale.

And this is why loosening up transfer restrictions for athletes is a bit of a pandora’s box. You can restrict coaches’ contact with other team’s players, but that doesn’t mean those players won’t get phone calls from them.

I don’t know that other coaches recruit better as much as winning crystal footballs attracts the kids. I think Richt can “recruit” a kid just as well as Saban/Meyer. But NC’s sell a little better sometimes and shine a little brighter in some kid’s eyes.

There is a flip side – without Richt’s moral integrity, we don’t get kids like Jordan Jenkins or Marlon Brown. Jenkins said as much when he announced when he said his mom didn’t feel safe with him going to Alabama.

Richt’s character alone is probably worth 1-3 kids each class who would sign elsewhere.

While this a subjective, gray area, I agree with WF Dawg, we get at least one player a year for hoe CMR is perceived by both parents and recruits. It is a plus for us, and it would be if you couldn’t find one example to admit so publicly. And quality recruiting isn’t as important as knowing the man will make you proud every year, and you neer have to doubt it (although some always will.)

Agreed BC. Nevertheless this is a feeling and/or belief unsupported by data. My gut tells me that parents and recruits like CMR and that some are influenced to come to UGA because of that. My gut tells me that some parents/recruits like Saban, too. And Corch. And Les Miles. And James Franklin (ugh!), and on and on. How this all plays out in recruiting when it comes down to actually signing players is speculation of the rankest sort, particularly when one tries to put a number (“1-3 per year”) to it.

I was coming here to post the same thing. In itself, it may not do a lot on teh recruiting trail, but it just shows that Mark Richt has this integrity that would make any kid respect him. His policy on transfers is one of the many things that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts in the minds of potential recruits, and it certainly takes away one aspect of negative recruiting against him.

I support Richt due to the fact that he wins games not because he’s a nice guy, not the two are mutually exclusive. But i hate Georgia fans who say they love the guy because he’s so classy and go as far as to say they would never want a prick like Saban or Petrino coaching at Georgia simply because that type of coach is a less than “nice” person. Frankly, I find the claim disingenious. Fans follow and support a team because they want that team to win often and win big. Personally, I don’t care what the coaches and players of my alma mater’s fb team do so long as they win and the methods are not A)illegal B) in violation of NCAA rules C) devaluing my degree and/or D) causing a massive PR disaster to the school. We pack Sanford stadium and watch on tv because we want to see Georgia kick ass not because we want to watch model citizens at work, let’s not pretend it’s anything more or less.

I might add that some of these sanctimonious posters were calling for CMR to be gone if he didn’t have a big year in ’11 after the less than wonderful ’09 and ’10 seasons. Some were saying CMR had to win at least 9 games and beat Florida to keep his job. No talk about what a great guy he was or how he brought integrity to the program then. Hypocrites.

It may seem disingenuous to you, but I assure you that some us are sincere. If all I was concerned about was winning, I would watch the NFL or pick the current bandwagon team. I doubt that I will ever be as emotionally invested in a coach again in my life as I am with Coach Richt.

Truth, there are many of us who feel very strongly about that Dawgfan Will, but we have to realize there will always be the other type fans too. Just the nature of society today, you see so many examples of it. We are not only financially bankrupt in America, but morally too. It may be out of step with the times, but my character/integrity is not for sale.

So if UGA didn’t win, you wouldn’t be a supporter? That seems to be what you are saying. I like to see the Dawgs win. I always want them to win and suffer a little when they don’t. But I can also recognize a quality human being and a leader, and Richt is both. He’s hardly a slouch as a football coach. When at all possible, I want the man and the coach.

Now, SOD, which coach would you be more impressed with as a 17 or 18 year old recruit who has a little uncertainty in your heart? The guy who will make you continue to be miserable if you end up miserable? Or the guy who actually appears to give a crap about you?

I support Richt on his record. He deserves an extension because of his record & his desire for continued success.
The fact that he is the type of person that he is is just Icing On the Cake so to speak. Makes me proud to be an Alum & a Dawg Fan.

A college head coach is more than just the manager of a football team; he’s essentially the face of the program. A program that means a lot to us, whether it’s because it represents our alma mater or our state or both. Mark Richt is a man of immense integrity and character, and that means that he’s a fine example of being the face of the program.

I don’t particularly care for the people that love Mark Richt and will defend him to the end of the earth because he’s a “good Christian man” and “classy”. I don’t like when fans devolve into that type of nonsensical argument to espouse some sort of moral superiority when the trophy case isn’t satisfying them. However, I don’t know what more you could want from this guy. He has achieved everything that you could expect the guy to achieve when he was hired (averages 10 wins/year, two SEC titles, 4 division titles) except for the crystal football. Honestly, I’ll take the guy we have now over some asshole like Jim Donnan assuming similar results. As the Senator said, it sure as hell is hard not to root for the guy.

The NCAA out to outlaw the practice of having to get a “release” from the previous coach to attend another school and play. Period. CMR is right. However, no recruits seem to care on signing day because they all think they are going to be All-SEC and won’t have a problem. That’s why the SODs and Sabans of the world are not appropriately screwed like they should be by recruiting.

I don’t wish to throw a wet blanket on the CMR love fest, but are Cheney and Grant pertinent to the discussion? I thought they were denied entry by our review committee and I don’t recall either attending a class or playing a down for UGA. We recruited them, then turned them away when it was time to begin college. An arugment could be made UGA owed them some help getting in a school after we pulled the rug out from under them – though it was no fault of CMR. Is there a UGA player who transferred directly to another sec program that might be more approrpiate to cite?

Quack, quack, quack. Maybe this blog shouldn’t be a CMR love fest. It sure wasn’t after the first 2 games of last season when many posters on this blog were calling for CMR to be fired mid-season. “I don’t know why we just go to extremes.”—Billy Joel

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with CMR’s transfer policy. To paraphase CMR, if they don’t want to be here, then they’re welcome to leave and go where they please. But I think an article comparing Grant & Cheney to Garcia’s situation is substantially inaccurate. It’s apples and oranges. When it happened CMR said he felt very bad about Grant & Cheney not being allowed to enroll, and it’s a credit that he assisted them, when many (perhaps most) other coaches would’ve moved on and let the kids fend for themselves.

Well, one difficulty in such a comparison is that Richt’s been at Georgia for a while now. He’s doesn’t have to deal with the reaction to a staff change like SOD or Edsall have been doing.

But anyway you want to look at it, it’s pretty noteworthy that there’s never been a situation when a Georgia player has had conditions put on his departure from the program under Richt. I doubt there are many other programs which can make a similar claim.

My memory is not always the best and everyone knows that I prfer Richt over every coach in D-1, but the point made by W Cobb Dawg is valid in that Richt made up for the UGA admittance group’s mistake. Holding the player in limbo until August was unforgiveable on our part and Richt rectified that by calling Houston Nutt and smoothing his move to Ark without a big ripple in the player’s life. Grant was also appreciative and the story made the Ark papers as well.Later, Grant played in a game vs us , but we prevailed.

But somehow I remember players going elsewhere (and not only Lemon) and they were prohibited from going to another SEC team that might be in the East and that we might play on rotation from the SEC West in the coming year. Is my mind playing tricks on me or do I have the whole thing out of context? Didn’t we prohibit Mett from going directly to another SEC team? All bets were off after he went Juco and did well, but I remember it differently.